Imran Khan falls off stage at Pakistan rally, suffers head injury

LAHORE, Pakistan (AFP) - Pakistani politician and former cricketer Imran Khan was rushed to hospital with head injuries on Tuesday after falling off a lift taking him onto the stage for an election rally.

Television footage showed Mr Khan, leader of the Pakistan Movement for Justice party (PTI), bleeding from the head as he was carried by aides through the crowd at the event in Pakistan's second largest city Lahore.

Mr Khan, who won only one seat in 2002 and boycotted polls in 2008, has led an electric campaign, galvanising the middle class and young people in what he has called a "tsunami" of support that will propel him into office.

The 60-year-old, who has undertaken a punishing schedule of daily rallies but who is known for his physical fitness, tumbled from a riser along with several of his staff, seemingly after one of them lost their balance.

Imran Khan, Pakistani cricketer-turned-politician and chairman of political party Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), addresses his supporters after his visit to mausoleum of Mohammad Ali Jinnah, founder and first governor-general of Pakistan, during an election campaign in Karachi, on May 7, 2013. Mr Khan fell off a lift taking him onto the stage for an election rally and was carried to his vehicle with cuts to his head, television footage showed on Tuesday. -- PHOTO: REUTERS